Paper long abstract:

The Abyei Area, straddling the north-south border of Sudan, was the subject of a separate protocol in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) signed between the government and the SPLM in January 2005. One provision of that protocol was the establishment of a boundaries commission to define the territory to be included in the special administration of the area. The commission's decision was to be implemented 'with immediate effect' on the submission of its report in July 2005, but up to now implementation has been blocked by the National Congress Party, who still control the government in Sudan. The conduct of war in Abyei established many precedents for the conduct of war in Darfur in the use of tribal militias and the forcible displacement of non-Arab peoples. The failure to implement the Abyei Protocol has implications not only for determining the north-south border (as stipulated by the CPA), but for the implementation of the more recent Darfur peace agreement. This paper will examine those implications.